A Magician on Remnant
by MarcusAurelias
Summary: When a powerful, old, and tired magician dies in his world and wakes up in the world of Remnant he finds that his desire for peace might just become a reality, but when circumstances force him to act he will have to make a decision, to ignore his desire for peace and once more take up arms,or to peacefully watch the world burn.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys Marcus here, imma be real with you, i know very little about RWBY other than a few major plot points, never watched the show, so most of my info is garnered from a combination of reading plenty of other fanfiction based in this world and the wiki, so im gonna be taking quite a few liberties, so if anything is glaringly wrong you can blame my lack of knowledge on the subject matter. Now for a disclaimer all characters and story belong to their respective owners.**

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He could feel it, the feeling he had been waiting for, the one thing that eluded him his over 2200-year long life, death. He cared too much to take his own life, maybe that was his biggest weakness he cared far too much for his own good. As he felt everything slip away from him, he let out a final breath and finally darkness took his vision. It was strange after everything he had figured out about reality, he never expected to wake up from the darkness in a field of blue flowers in a clearing surrounded by a forest. He could feel the weariness of his body was gone, he looked down to see his hands no longer held scars from countless battles and not old withered skin, but fresh skin.

He quickly sat up and looked up, the sky was a gorgeous shade of blue, then it hit him. "Is this the afterlife? I guess Entropy never did tell me what happened after death, probably wanted to keep it a mystery." Then he heard it, a voice one he was quite familiar with.

"Hello there David, been a few centuries hasn't it?" He turned to find a man dressed in a too perfect black suit with brown hair and shimmering brown eyes.

"Interloper what are you doing here?" He stopped to consider the implications. "Did you die as well!? How is that possible you're basically a god!"

The Interloper held up a hand, "No, in fact neither of us are dead, at least not yet anyway, you see, when you were on your last legs I called in some favors from Conflict and a bunch of other Void Lords, and instead of dying they gave you your youth and brought you here." He sat down next to David. "You see bud, me Conflict and most of the Void Lords thought you deserved something as a reward, you quite literally gave everything you had to help us sort out the mess that was your plane of reality, and in the end you never got a chance to just rest, so this is it, our gift to you."

David stood to his full height of over six feet, "How is this a gift! I do not belong to this world; this is not my home! My home is where I died, and you denied me that!" His eyes filled with tears, then it started to rain, soon it turned into a torrent of rain.

The Interloper rose to match his height, "David I-" but then he noticed how David was looking up. "Ah, I guess you've never seen rain before huh? Well this planet in this plane is largely untouched by industrialization and other pollution producers.

David turned to him "What is this place?" He touched his face and skin feeling the strange wet texture all over it, some from his own tears most from the torrent of rain coming down. The Interloper snapped his fingers and the rain then suddenly let up, and he looked to see the sun begin to peek out from behind a set of large clouds, he couldn't remember the last time he had seen the sun this clearly and not being covered by smog.

"We…I don't want you to pass on without knowing what its like to be the hero." The Interloper said his face a mask of worry. "You fought so hard and for so long I think you forgot what it was like before we recruited you to help us sort out our mess."

David looked back at the Interloper "I don't want to be the hero I want to rest." His face dropped and his eyes became dull and he sighed. "If I had to ask for anything it is peace, an opportunity to live out my days peacefully."

The Interloper nodded, "Then me and the other Void Lords will endeavor to allow to live in this plane of reality peacefully." He snapped his fingers and a small dark blue painted house appeared in the middle of the field. "This area is about a three-hour hike to Vale a nearby city to the west if it was nighttime you could probably see the lights. Although you might want to be ready for some rather hostile wildlife."

The two of them began to walk toward the house "What do you mean hostile wild life I thought you said you would let me live peacefully?" David waited while Interloper pulled out a set of keys and unlocked the house.

As they entered, they were greeted by a clean white colored interior, fully furnished. "Let's get the house tour out of the way before I begin explaining a few things about this little plane of existence." After giving David a quick house tour humming to himself the entire time they went into the living room and sat down across from each other.

"Now explain Interloper." David said his voice sharp with resentment, he then crossed his arms. "I'm waiting."

Interloper pulled out a toothpick from seemingly nowhere and stuck it in his mouth deftly. "This little plane of reality is called Remnant a quaint little place with a minor human extinction problem, Conflict and Entropy cant decide on whether to just clean slate it or to try and mess with it to 'fix' it, but since no one here has the potential for inter-dimensional interference it hasn't been a big priority, so it's just kind of stagnated the overall population is at an all-time low, due to the hostile wildlife controlled by a bitter ex-wife of some old dude who could man the hell up in the first place, but I digress." He removed the toothpick and flicked it into a nearby garbage bin and pulled out another and promptly put it in his mouth. "These hostile creatures are called Grimm, and they come in lots of shapes and sizes and ferocities, but with your magic I'm sure none of them besides maybe the woman controlling them could pose any type of significant threat to you, there are also some sentient beings called Faunus and they are bipedal humanoids with animal features like cat ears or fur and a plethora of other kinds of similar things."

David sat quietly intaking all of the information Interloper was giving him and mentally filing it away. Interloper was surprisingly forthcoming with information, everything from hunters and huntresses who tried to keep the Grimm at by even down to the true names and current identities of the man and woman previously mentioned. "So, what your telling me is you through me here cause you to give me a chance to be the hero, also known as solving you Void Lords issues for you without you having to interfere?" He said his voice conveying a barely hidden fury.

"No, not at all, I mean if we wanted you to do that then we would have contacted someone from this plane, not take you from yours when your about to kick the bucket, hell, I even put an interception field over this area, unless you want anyone to no one can see feel or even perceive there is even a house here, look I'll be honest the Progenitors are already a bit annoyed at how we bent the rules a bit to get you here but after explaining the understood, so all we could do was set you up with the tools to live well, and in accordance with your desires peacefully." Interlopers head suddenly whipped to the side. "Look I gotta go, this is the best I can do, and David."

"Yes?" David said his softer more tired sounding now.

"For what little my word is worth, I am truly sorry for what I did to you, made you do, all to fix my screw up." Interloper then bowed deeply to him, "It was the greatest honor to know you and call you a friend. This will be the last that I or any of the void lords will ever contact you, you have served with greater distinction than any agent I have ever known." With that Interloper suddenly winked out of existence in a flash of white light.

David still sitting in the soft lazy boy style chair sighed, "Well, what's one more life?"

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**Sup okay so, what did you think? I have far to many characters and story ideas in my google docs for my own good so i decided to throw my hat into the ring of the thousands of other RWBY fanfictions out there. Be sure to leave comments on your opinions and various other things.**


	2. Update Mk3

Okay guys, I really didn't expect this to gain anything in terms of reads or follows but I was pleasantly surprised by everyone's positive feedback, so I've decided since this entire idea was a spur of the moment thing why not let you guys choose where this goes from a list of ideas I had this will help me since I'm really crappy at choosing what kind of way to go down, I'm pretty indecisive, so for our intrepid MC David where do you want his story to go? Here are a few ideas I had.

A. He stays home and it turns out his house is in the middle of the forest during the Beacon tests leading to shenanigans

B. He heads to Vale wanting to explore and stuff perhaps meeting some people along the way

C. Salem with her magic detects his existence and sends out some people to investigate also resulting in shenanigans

You can also comment a simple idea, so I'll leave this alone for a few days and come back later to see what you guys thin


	3. Chapter 2: Exploration

**Hey guys spent a lot longer on this than i thought i would i do have a back long of words so you can expect regular updates, so hope you enjoy this chapter.**

It had been about a week since David had been left to his own devices to digest everything that had happened, the fridge which was already stocked when he first opened it was running low on food items, David sighed and walked to his room and opened the closet, it was filled with clothes all of it to his liking he found, he chose a pair of dark blue dress pants his usual black dress shoes and a white dress shirt with rolled up sleeves. After getting dressed he decided to make a sandwich for his trip to Vale, he gathered a few things into a small leather satchel he found in his closet. As he walked out the door, he locked it behind him, he also placed alarm spells and trap spells on all the windows and doors in the house. Nodding in satisfaction he started walking to the west.

He had seen the faint lights in the distance every night and it always interested him, but he didn't want to leave his quite house in favor of a bustling city. He stuck a hand into his pocket and pulled out several denominations of a currency Interloper told him was called Lein, as well an I.D. that would allow him to enter into the city. It heavily reminded him of a gift card of some kind but with more value to it. "It's been a really long time since I used physical currency around 3220 A.D., they started phasing out physical currency in favor of a universal purely digital one." David shrugged his shoulders. "Ah well it doesn't really matter." He could have sped up his walk to Vale with magic but thought it would be refreshing to have a nice long walk. He thought that up until he heard something to his left in the woods.

His head snapped to the right searching for the source of the sound, then he heard a growl. His neutral face turned into a frown, he hoped he wouldn't have to deal with any of these 'Grimm' as they are called, but it seems they were more common than Interloper let on. David then waited, when said grimm lunged out of the brush he snapped his fingers and blue ethereal chains sprouted out of the ground wrapping around the creature and dragging it back into the brush, where loud snarling was replaced by wet gargling noises. He brushed himself off and continued to walk toward the city. It reminded him so much of the isolated communities back home trying desperately to hide. He shook his head trying to put the memories from his mind.

To keep his mind occupied he started by going through all of the magic forms in his head, of which there were a lot, there was offence, defense, support, and control, of these four types there were mixes of two of the four depending on birth parents and an insane amount of other factors, then there was immortal type and his own, mastery type. Immortals being well unkillable, by any natural means anyway, and mastery was what it sounded like mastery of everything, or at least he could learn any type of magic within the four major types. His favorite elements to use in combat were lightning and ice, but his biggest strength by far was his skill at calamity class magic. When he put his mind to it, he could create hurricanes that well surpassed any classification, lightning storms that could destroy entire armies, it was the biggest reason they won.

He shook his head again, "I guess it's harder to forget the things you want to forget than the things you don't want to forget." He said out loud, after this he simply started taking in the scenery. He smiled to himself, "God how long has it been since I've seen trees with this much green?" He grabbed a leaf from a low hanging branch. Since he was so focused on the scenery around him, he didn't see the sharp dip in the landscape and promptly fell over right onto his face, he smacked his face into a branch cutting his face, it was shallow but it really stung, he looked up to see a trail of some kind.

He shook his head and sighed "I should probably pay more attention to my surroundings," he whispered some words and tapped his face with an index finger the cut began closing and soon it was as if it had never happened. After wiping the blood away with a napkin, he once more walking. Eventually after following the trail he ran into a proper road and followed it, he saw a few people as he walked and gave them nods and waves as he walked by, a few said hello but he simply nodded and smiled back, he wasn't good at talking to people, fighting a centuries long war by yourself tends to do that.

Eventually he came to the entrance of Vale "Please present your I.D. for entry." Said a guard curtly.

David nodded and fished around in his satchel until he found it and held it out to the officer. "There you go officer; I hope everything is in order."

The guard looked over the I.D. and back at him, "Huh, retired hunter from Atlas, David Warden 32 years old, huh, but still got a current Huntsman license?" David simply shrugged his shoulders and smiled the guard narrowed his eyes but handed him back his I.D. David glanced at the little holographic projection of his I.D. and saw a picture of him, his name, a string of number reminiscent of a Social Security Number and a strange picture of some kind to the top left of his photo it looked like a sword wrapped in chains. "Don't cause any trouble while you're here you hear?"

David raised his hands up "Of course, I wouldn't dream of it sir. I was just here to pick up a few things and head back home."

"Uh, huh, go on through." The guard gestured behind him with a thumb.

David nodded and walked through the gates into a fairly quaint city, at least by his standards anyway. As he walked, he saw the aforementioned Faunus that Interloper spoke of, he was indeed correct, most of them had only really minor attributes such as cat or rabbit ears, but some bared a far more striking resemblance to their real-life counter parts. He smiled, it was good to see something new and interesting for once. As he walked, he heard a cry and his head instinctively snapped towards the sound to see what he could only describe as two humans one woman and one man harassing what he thought to be a rabbit faunus in an alleyway. His instincts kicked in and he began walking toward the three, as he was about to disintegrate the two humans with magic, he quickly stopped himself. "No, don't get involved, your done fighting, no more fighting." David turned away to walk away down another street.

"See, no one's coming to help you freak." The malice in his voice was clear then he heard the distinct thud and heard the girl cry out again.

He stopped, he could feel it, his blood was boiling and his magical reserves were responding to his extreme emotions, the whole area heated up by a few degrees, but no one seemed to notice thankfully. He quickly began to walk away trying his best to ignore the sounds of the beating, he inwardly flinched every time he heard a fist connect until finally, he couldn't hear the sounds any more. Then he saw it, a saving a grace, a café, he quickly took a seat trying his best to reign in his anger while looking at the menu. All he could do was breathe deeply and slowly after a few minutes he finally calmed down enough to be able to think straight. "I can't get involved anymore, if I do it will be a rinse and repeat of last time. Not to mention interfering to much will make the Progenitors take notice, especially when it comes to me, and then pretty soon after that he would most likely be sent to another less kind reality at best, and at worst written directly out of reality itself." He thought and he shuddered, it would be as if he had never existed those who remembered his face would forget it, friends he made would go about their lives as though nothing was wrong.

"Hello sir can I take your order?" Said a faunus waitress, the sudden appearance of the woman made him jump. "Oh, I'm sorry sir did I startle you?"

David smiled "Yes you did, but I'm fine I was just a little out of it, anyway, can I get a coffee with three sugars and just a bit of cream and I'll also take a cinnamon roll." The waitress rote down everything and took his menu.

"We will get that right out for you sir." She gave him a big customer service smile, as she was about leave David got her attention again.

"I'm not from around here and was wondering if you could direct me to the nearest library and grocery store." He said holding smile.

"Of course, I can sir." She then wrote down the directions a piece of paper and handed them to him. "There you go, I hope you enjoy your time here in vale."

David nodded "I hope so as well." As she turned and left, he frowned. "There is always a dark side to the moon." He thought. He shook his head and tried to think of something else. The girl quickly returned with his coffee and cinnamon roll and as he took a sip he paused. It was one of the best cups he had ever had, although to be fair his standards had probably dipped drastically. He quickly took a bite of the cinnamon roll, it was warm and fresh, just how he liked them. His mind now focused on the delicious treat he failed to notice the waitress staring at him.


	4. Chapter 3: Interference

**Sorry about the garbled mess earlier i had to figure out why i t was doing this i figured out if any of you ever have this problem when copy and pasting try and paste as plain text instead of a strait paste. Okay with that out of the way i hope you enjoy the new non garbled chapter.**

She was currently talking to someone quietly on her scroll "Yes, there is someone here who might be who you were looking for Roman, talks strange, is unfamiliar with Vale, do you want me to follow him more closely?" She nodded her head in response, "Of course I'll leave it to you I have far more important things to do than follow some nobody to prove some wild ideas and theories of that crazy girl." She then quickly got back to work.

He finished everything and left a random green lien card on the table looked at the direction on the piece of paper and walked away toward the library. When he arrived, he was a bit surprised at the size of the place, it was a bit small by his standards, but considering the state of the world he wasn't to surprised. He walked inside and began to look around for any books pertaining to huntsman and the worlds history. After being directed by a librarian toward the books he was looking for he got to reading, and before he knew it was almost ten at night. He then placed the books back into their places and walked out of the library. "I really lost track of time, dammit." He said out loud. He looked at the directions to the grocery store and hoped they were still open at this time as he began heading toward it. Only he felt like he was being watched, he began casually looking around seeing if he could spot anyone.

He didn't spot anyone but still couldn't shake the feeling, during the war he had learned to trust his feelings, on more than one occasion it had saved his life, but he had to remind himself that he wasn't in a warzone anymore, he was in a place that for all of its strange rules and hostile creatures, was relatively peaceful. He couldn't help but smile as he looked up and saw more stars than he had seen in so long. It actually made him stop and look around to find a place to sit, he couldn't find one so he decided on leaning against a wall instead. He remembered when he was very young, he would often walk outside at night and look at the stars to clear his head, they always seemed to be able to make him think more clearly. After a few minutes of looking up he returned to his walk toward the store, when he finally arrived, he found them to be open to his surprise. He walked inside and retrieved the items he needed, when he paid, he realized he had very little Lien left. He sighed, as he began walking back towards the gate.

As he was walking, he looked down the alley from earlier and saw the same faunus in the alleyway, she must have been there for hours unable to really move and no one even did anything. He stopped as he looked at her barely moving form, after a bit of hesitation he walked down the alleyway after setting down he bags of groceries. When he came close to the girl, he could see all of the bruises all over her face and arms, and he was sure there were far more under her old and tattered shirt. He pulled out a blue colored lien note after careful magical examination of the note he placed it back in his satchel and grabbed some dirt from the ground and took a breath, faint swirling blue light surrounded the pile of dirt in his hand and soon the dirt began to change shape. After about a minute of the dirt changing shapes and form it finally formed into a stack of the blue lien from before. He then kneeled down in front of the girl, when he reached out, she reacted violently by punching him and scrambling further away. He rubbed his chin where the haphazard punch connected, He then approached slowly and whispered calmly "I'm not going to hurt you okay? I just wanted to give you something." He held up the blue lien, she looked at him, distrusting, her eye furrowed into a scowl, and he could see it, the hate, fear, and desperation in her eyes. He was all too familiar with the look, "Here," He placed the lien on the ground and took a few large steps back. "I'm sorry." It was all he could say as he walked out of the alleyway.

Waitress P.O.V.

After she had left work saying she was sick, she followed the man for several hours, he was an interesting fellow, especially when he had stayed in the library for more hours than she thought someone was capable of. After he had exited, he walked to the grocery store she had given him directions to. She took note of everything he did along the way, at one point she almost panicked when he stiffened up as he walked and kept looking around as if looking for something. "There is no way he could see me or hear me, right?" She thought to herself, that is until he looked directly at her, but he shrugged and seemed to just shake his head and keep moving. When he got his groceries, he began walking down the same path he left, when he walked past an alleyway with a badly beaten faunus he stopped, she could see his furrow into scowl, but then the scowl eased up and all she saw were tired piercing blue eyes. After what happened earlier, she didn't dare get to close in fear of him hearing or seeing her.

He set his groceries down and walked down the alleyway, she was prepared to lash out to defend her fellow faunus, but after the girl punched him and he didn't really seem to be angry, she narrowed her eyes, people who were truly kind to faunus were few and far between. "What are his motives?" She thought, and she dared to get a bit closer, when she was just peeking around the corner of the alley way, she saw something that should not have been possible. He had a handful of dirt and from that dirt several blue lien cards appeared were where the dirt once was after a fait blue light covered them. "I need to report this." She thought as she took off down the street.

David P.O.V

After retrieving his groceries he quickly began making his way to the gate, he decided as soon as he was out of sight and earshot he would use teleportation magic to get back home, even as strong as he was he had no interest in fighting Grimm the entire way home for a handful of groceries. As he was about to turn a corner, he heard the distinct sound of gunfire and combat, he froze. This was the only way he knew how to get out of the city, he could try wandering but despite its small size compared to other cities he had seen it was densely packed and the street layout wasn't in a grid format or anything like that so following a street wasn't a guarantee he'd end up somewhere actually useful, he didn't know how to call the authorities on his scroll, as he now learned it was called, that Interloper gave him. He took a deep breath and carefully peeked around the corner to see what he could only describe as a small girl wielding a scythe that was at least a couple feet taller than she was, he could only assume she was a huntsman or at least one in training. He sighed "Great," He whispered "Now I'm stuck, won't interfere, she looks like she has got it under control." Just as those words came out of her mouth the girl was assailed by a man in a white suit and a bowler hat throwing her into the ground with a cane dazing her, he took a breath. "Dammit"

Roman P.O.V

As he was about hit her with his cane a frost covered chain wrapped around his arm and began to squeeze, his Arura mostly mitigated the damage, but he could feel the strength behind it, if he didn't have a very strong aura his bones would be in several pieces at the moment, then he heard a voice. "Is that any way to be treating a lady?" He turned to see a man who looked to be in his late thirties to early forties with deep blue eyes, the chain that had latched onto him was coming from somewhere behind him. This made him want to leave immediately, this guy was probably a hunter, and an experienced one by the looks of it, he could see it in the way he held himself, loosely but not casually almost like he was tensing up, ready to immediately jump into action, his hands were behind his back striking an almost regal figure. The chains were most likely his semblance, and a pretty nasty one at that, but he had to do something, so he lifted his cane and pulled the trigger firing the large fire dust round at the man's face, another chain sprang out and blocked the round but the fire dust in the round exploded in his face making him cover his eyes and he felt the chains titan like grip loosen he quickly removed his hand. He pulled out his scroll "Cinder I need to be picked up it seems we might have bit off more than we can chew, I got a hunter here who doesn't look pleased in the slightest at our little show."

A womans silky voice that made him squirm came from the scroll, "Roman at least tell me you have the Dust, because if not we are going to need to have a talk."

Roman deftly dodged a chain attempting to warp around his leg, "Well considering we have a bloke here who is putting me on the back foot I would say no, but you know me, so yes I got some of it anyway, but I could really use a bit of assistance." Another chain came from a seemingly impossible angle and tried to grab him, but he deftly dodged it. "Not very good at catching people are you, old man?"

The man cocked his head to the right. "When did I ever say I was trying to catch you, believe me if I wasn't retired, had a long day and didn't have to much of a desire to deal with the authorities you would have been caught, but think of this as courtesy, leave and I won't mention this to anyone, or that you have a partner named Cinder."

Roman froze, "How the hell did he hear that in the middle of a freaking fight?" He thought.

"Continue trying assail me and the young lady and you'll find out just how strong this old man is." His voice didn't hesitate or fluctuate which to Roman meant two things. One, This guy was one of the best liars he had ever met, or two, he was very confident in being able to beat him, he leaned towards more of the latter when one of the chains lashed out faster than he could react and hit him right in the chest slamming him against a wall his aura becoming dangerously weak. He hadn't even been able to react properly, he looked to his left and saw the girl stirring, rubbing her head then looked back at the older man. His voice once again calm, cool and collected "Choose wisely." His eyes are what really made Roman flinch he'd seen those eyes before on people who had killed before, and he was pretty sure this guy wouldn't hesitate to kill him, he didn't think himself some hero he would eliminate whatever he saw as a threat. Roman quickly jumped onto the roof and onto the bullhead that was coming in.

David POV

He didn't make an attempt to stop him, he just calmly stood there waiting to see if anything else would occur. He did see a woman at the helm of the bullhead, and briefly they locked eyes, they were the eyes of someone furious about something. When the bullhead was out of sight he looked to see the girl from earlier actually getting up, he quickly took off down the street and left, he exited the city just as quickly, he only slowed down when he made it back to the trail he had used earlier to get to the road. When he finally teleported back home, he deactivated all of the security measures and after putting all of the groceries away he slumped down into an arm chair in the living room. He took a deep breath, and sighed, "I think that's enough excitement for one day." As he drifted off, he wondered when was the last time he fell asleep so easily.


	5. Chapter 4: Old Habits Die Hard

He woke up yelling and drenched in sweat, he could feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins. He was hyperventilating and had a splitting headache, he rubbed his temples and got out of the chair, he stretched and went into the bathroom showered shaved and brushed his teeth. He then changed into a red dress shirt and a pair of black jeans, and a pair of cowboy style boots. He walked out his back door onto a porch and sat down in a chair, he looked out to see the sun beginning to rise, the shattered moon disappearing behind mountains off in the distance. He smiled for the first time in a while he just smiled, not because he won a fight or because he saved thousands of people, he was smiling because of something as simple as a beautiful sunrise.

David walked back into his house closed the door behind him and sighed, "I really hoped that maybe just this once I could be left alone." He scoffed "Huh, maybe Interloper decided to bring me here to teach me or show me something? He always was a great liar and manipulator." He smirked. "Well, I guess even if it is his fault, it doesn't matter, I always hated not doing anything when I could do something. For now, though, I think it was time I decorated this place a little bit." Other than a few paintings on the walls and the furniture, his home was rather sparse, he walked down the halls and drew down the ladder to the attic, Interloper had told him that he had stored a lot of his belongings in the attic, so it was time to sort through it.

He had expected for it to be quite a lot but he didn't expect for it to be as bad as what he was seeing. Boxes were stacked up to the ceiling there was barely any room to maneuver. David sighed "When did I accumulate this much stuff," he paused "Well I guess did have a habit of collecting trophies and other things I found interesting." He rolled up his sleeves and began to dig into the boxes, most held things of little value small mementos of victories and random odds and ends he found along the way, but there were a few items he was specifically looking for, the first one he found was a simple looking longsword, but upon closer inspection one could see feint lines of red colored energy running along the length of the blade culminating at the red gem set into the pommel.

This sword was his first real victory against someone, the man had been quite insane but his ability to use his magic to improve his bodies reflexes and strength made him a very dangerous opponent. So when he finally beat him after what felt like an hour long fight he took his sword as a memento, he even used it a few times it was fantastic weapon, it was designed to channel magical energy from the user and transfer it into the blade like a staff but instead of casting spells it allowed the blade to cut through just about anything as well as made ones sword skills improve by a fair margin he called it Durendal he had felt the name was appropriate. The second item he found was a bit more personal, it was a bronze medallion, it was his first ever defense ward he made with his own two hands, it was rather outdated and not very efficient, but it was his first one and at the time it had saved his life more than once, he had inlaid it with a black tourmaline giving it naturally protective properties from possession and hostile spirits overall which was really nice for the time he used. The third and final item he was looking for was something a bit more obscure, he searched and searched through every box until after what felt like hours, he found what he was looking for, it was a simple silver ring with a royal blue sapphire inlaid into it.

He quickly put it on his left index finger and felt the stored energy within it flow across his body. It was his memory ring as he called it, all it was really was a glorified photo album, but each new face he committed to the ring meant they were special to him, and using this ring guaranteed that they would never be forgotten as long as he made sure the ring remembered them, but it was with the knowledge that he put them there because they were important made his loss of memory a little easier, after living and fighting as long as he did.

He accessed the archive and images of people flashed through his mind, most he didn't remember very well, but that was okay, that's what the ring was for, but then he stopped and focused on one face in particular, he was young tall and had a sword at his waist on his left side with a short wooden wand in his right hand, and his left hand resting on the sheathed blade. He had a large smile on his face as the sun cast an almost heroic light over him. "I always will be the optimist the fighter for dreamers of improbable dreams." David quickly removed the ring and sighed, "I wish I could say the same Paul, I wish I could say the same." He said tiredly, he retrieved a few more items after that, most for decoration, a few were paintings others were interesting knickknacks to set on shelves and the like. After about an hour of arranging all of his decorations, he nodded in satisfaction. "Now what else should I do, there is still quite a lot of time left in the day."

He clapped his hands together, "I'll make a garden, I never really made one before while I was alive." As he walked out the back he stopped. "I really have become an old man, haven't I? Growing a garden getting upset when people disturb my peace and quiet. Hahahaha!" He laughed out loud. "I always hoped I could find the time to just be an old man, but fighting tends to preoccupy your mind instead of thoughts of growing a garden and the like." As he started gathering his magic power to begin shifting the earth to make himself a garden when he felt something shift in the surrounding areas aura, it was more hostile like the forest itself was upset with something, probably some sort of grimm attacking hunters. He shook it off splayed out his hands in front of him and kneeled as he placed them on the ground, and poured his magic into the ground, when his magic was thoroughly spread throughout the terrain he began altering and as he altered the magics to shape the ground as it responded to his commands, soon he had twenty rows each about ten feet long and two feet wide spread evenly in a perfect rectangle. He rose up and nodded in satisfaction at his work.

Then as he was walking inside to get a drink to cool himself off , he felt something trip one of his magical alarms, his head snapped to the north where the magic had detected the disturbance, as he did he focused on the simple alarm spell, as he did his eyes shot open in surprise, it was a person, a boy to be precise, be he couldn't tell what they looked like all he could tell was that he was running directly toward the clearing clearly running from something. David ran inside and grabbed the sword from earlier off the mantel he had placed it on and prepared a quickening spell for himself, and as he was about to cast it, he stopped. He shook his head "No, no more." Then he walked back inside, but he kept a proverbial eye on the figure until just before the clearing his life force was cut off abruptly, he closed his eyes and breathed. He was not surprised at not feeling any real sense of guilt, maybe it was because he never saw anything, or perhaps his attempts at trying to focus his mind had worked, perhaps he had just at some point became numb to it all. David shrugged, walked inside and poured himself a glass of milk. After sitting down in a recliner and finishing that off and flipping through channels on his T.V. he turned it off and sighed. "I am incredibly bored." That's when he heard a knock at his door.

Ozpin P.O.V. hours after robbery

He kept watching the recording of the robbery over and over again he had already seen Miss Rose of course, but there was one extra detail that intrigued him, the intervention of a gentleman from seemingly out of nowhere. He saw what seemed to be chains wrap around the forearm of Roman Torchwick, he kept watching the brief exchange between the two. Watching the chains, it was almost as if they were toying with Roman, and looking at the man's facial expression he saw something akin to boredom. He zoomed in on the man's face and took a screenshot. "Glynda? Do you think you could track this man down see who he is and where he came from?"

Glynda turned to face Ozpin "Of course I can, but why?"

"He could be useful, if his skills aren't apparent, his semblance seems to be rather powerful." But internally Ozpin could help not just keep looking at his eyes, they were a deep piercing blue, but he could help but think, "_How can a man who looks rather young, have eyes so tired?_"

Several hours later

As Ozpin was finishing his fifth cup of coffee Glynda reentered the room and placed a file on his desk. "His name is David Warden, he's has quite the record, well everything that isn't classified apparently. My guess, former S.O.U. of some kind, he's credited with apprehending at least sixteen huntsmen, and did it all singlehandedly, guess you were right to think he was skilled, but interesting fact, it seems he has very few grim operations under his belt." Ozpin looked at the file and found it was pretty standard Atlas military stuff. Age, name skin and eye color, hometown was unlisted which was strange but not unusual considering many villages were often wiped out by grimm, but what truly intrigued him was his listed semblance, it was called Harrowing Chains apparently, its properties could be changed with what type of dust he used. "From the looks of it he was only ever placed to defend a location from grimm attack rather than hunting them himself. Almost everything else about him is classified, I even contacted Ironwood and most of his file is classified to him as well, which is really strange." Her comments were somewhat lost on him, as he looked through the file carefully, then he came to his listed weapons which was rather small considering his rather extensive career, first he didn't have any combination weapons from what he could tell, which considering his age of thirty-two was somewhat surprising enough to make note of, that was certain. He looked at the photos of his weapons and they were all simple pieces of kit he had one sword which was a simple cross guard design although there was a bit of flair with a red gem of some kind set into the pommel, he had a simple firearm to his name which from its specifications was rather hefty, packing a large 10mm dust round into a mostly black steel pistol with no additions or adornments, the man seemed to be simple in his approach to things with either grim or other huntsman. As he read further, he came up on one particular passage that wasn't all blacked out.

_David is a phenomenal swordsman with his one blade not one person ever beat him in a swordfight, if action is ever to be taken against him, weakening him first would be recommended, his defenses are too strong and his physical capabilities are also quite impressive. To defeat him would require significant effort, and coordination from at least two teams of huntsman. His address was simply a set of coordinates. _

"Are you listening to me headmaster!?" Glynda yelled almost directly into his ear.

Ozpin almost jumped at the sudden shout, "Sorry Miss. Goodwitch, I just can't help but think there was a very good reason he retired, but there is too much at stake for us no to at least try and get him to our side. Glynda what do you think about creating a new combat class other than yours?"


	6. Chapter 5: Couldn't be Left Alone

**Sorry about the long time with no update had life stuff getting in the way, **

**but as an apology i made sure this chapter was extra long, so here you go.**

**David P.O.V**

He jerked up_ "No one should know this place even exists, let alone the imperception field although to be fair, if you're looking for it specifically then the magic won't work. That means they somehow figured out where I lived, possibly using those cameras I saw dotted everywhere in Vale, dammit I knew I shouldn't have intervened."_ While these thoughts went through his mind at light speed, there was another knock. He sighed "I'm coming, hold your damn horses, I'm coming." He then opened the door to see two people standing there one a fairly young woman possibly early to mid-thirties, and another man with a cane who seemed to be in his late fifties with far more gray hair then he had. _"I just had to open my mouth huh?"_ He thought.

"Hello is this perhaps the residence of David Warden?" The older man asked.

He sighed "Yes, it is, can I help you? I was just about to take a nice nap when you came pounding at my damn door." He said hoping tone and facial expression were enough to get them to leave, unfortunately no such luck seemed to come.

"Yes, if we could have but a moment of your time?" The man asked, his smile screamed being somewhat fake.

He wiped down his face with a hand, and stood aside "Very well, come in have a seat, would you like some tea?"

The man shook his head "No thank you, this won't take long anyway."

David nodded and sat back down in his recliner with the two others taking a seat on the couch. "So, to whom to I owe the pleasure to welcoming into my home?"

**Ozpin P.O.V**

David was rather underwhelming in his appearance he had a well kempt beard going, he had a strange splash of grey going across his hair which was unusual for his age, but Ozpin could tell looking at his eyes, this man was not in the best of moods due to his and Glynda arrival. Then his eyes gravitated to his cane, which made him hesitate. _"Could he tell? That the artifact was there?"_ He inwardly shook his head. _"Impossible."_

Glynda decided to introduce herself first. "I am Glynda Goodwitch Headmistress of Beacon Academy, I am also the combat instructor." She bowed her head slightly in greeting.

Ozpin then also nodded "I am Ozpin current Headmaster of Beacon academy-" He was cut off by David raising his hand.

David was now outright scowling not a good first impression it seems. "Headmaster, I will be frank with you stop playing this stupid game and be honest with me, what do you want?" The disdain in his voice was clear, he would get one shot to convince him, otherwise this would be the last he dealt with them.

Ozpin took a deep breath and Glynda kept her cool "Mr. Warden, we came to offer you a job as a combat instructor."

His scowl seemed to lessen slightly "I thought you were the combat instructor, Miss. Goodwitch? Besides what makes you think that I would be a capable teacher, you must have read some dusty file from ages ago, but if It holds anything resembling truth then you know I'm not a grimm hunter."

"Sir your skills could be invaluable, especially with the appearance of the radical elements of the white fang appearing they are bringing many powerful huntsmen to their side." As she was saying this David walked over a cabinet and opened it, inside was a plethora of different liquors he grabbed one that had a dark caramel color to it, the label on it was in a different language, but thankfully it was one Ozpin could read. _"Scotch Single Malt 18 Year, he has quite expensive taste from the looks of it."_

David looked up and noticed Ozpin looking at the bottle. "Would you like a drink?" He said as he put in a few ice cubes and poured the scotch into a glass.

Ozpin shook his head "No thank you, but I thank you for the offer." He then smiled and waited for Glynda to finish talking.

After what felt like hours of back and forth between them and David with seemingly no progress on convincing him and David was talking them in circles, Glynda's calm was beginning to crack and showing her frustration. "So, when you retired that was it? You just gave up and said 'I'm done don't need to fight for humanity anymore.' What kind of heartless man are you to just give up so easily!?"

That's when Ozpin knew it wasn't gonna work out, at least that's what he thought until David started laughing out loud. "Hahahaha! Oh, Gods that's a good one I haven't heard someone actually be that presumptuous yet honest in a long while, this is what I look for in contemporaries those who are willing to call me and anyone else out on failures and the like even if it makes them look rude. Your right I am quite heartless," Then he stopped laughing suddenly. "But believe me I'm sure you know this but just to make sure you know, I retired for a very good reason, and I would prefer to keep it that way but I must admit to one thing. I am incredibly bored out here it was great the first few weeks but after that it got old, I'm a man of action I hate sitting idle. So, I'll take you up on your offer under a few conditions." He leaned in a rested his arms on his knees, then he looked right into Ozpins eyes, his piercing blue eyes seemingly cutting into his soul. "One, I retain my right to leave at any time that I wish with fair warning ahead of time of course, two I will train the students who take my class as I see fit within reason, if you have a serious legitimate concern besides a 'there just kids' type worry and concern then I will be happy to work with you, third and most importantly a permanent residence and office on campus."

Ozpin cocked his head in mild confusion. "Mr. Warden forgive me for my curiosity, but don't you already have a residence?"

David smirked "An excellent question, again I have a few reasons for this, without motorized transport it's about a four hour trip to Vale, second I would rather not have to kill seven grimm just to commute to work, of course if I desire I can return to my home, it has plenty of defenses to keep unwanted guests out anyway so leaving it will be of little worry to me."

As David was about to say something else Glynda interrupted "Wait, wait, wait, so your saying that your now okay with working for the academy because I yelled at you?!"

David chuckled to himself rose from his seat and placed the now empty glass in the sink. "Well, yes and no, no because there is a difference between righteous anger and childish anger, yours was more righteous and second it showed me your willing to stand up to me, and the number of people willing to do that I can count on one hand, so congrats your brave." He clapped his hands in an almost mocking gesture as he walked back to his seat and sat down.

"And why is this such and achievement? The main reason it seems that the list is so small is because you seem to barely interact with anyone." Glynda was scowling and crossing her arms while her foot tapped in obvious agitation.

"Because miss Glynda if you read my file, I bet you saw what I was capable of and I assure the stories you hear and the files you read if nothing else will have been watered down to make those in charge rest easy."

**David P.O.V**

David was in full bullshitting mode, he was able to glean a few facts from the way they talked and acted and held themselves around him, when the man said his name was Ozpin, he internally slapped himself for just letting him into his home without asking for his name first, he could have just tried to read their minds with magic, but as he remembered Interloper telling him, this guy had magic, he didn't know what rules they ran on so he didn't want the chance of him being able to detect magic, hell the guy might already be able to tell he was a magic user. _"Stop psyching yourself out David, he is a man, and at the end of the day just because he can reincarnate and has magic does not make him invincible, but I shouldn't let my guard down." _

He tried every single tactic to try and get them to just give up and leave, but it didn't work, that is until he just simply started talking them in circles, finally he got a reaction out of the woman Glynda as she had introduced herself. "So, when you retired that was it? You just gave up and said 'I'm done don't need to fight for humanity anymore.' What kind of heartless man are you to just give up so easily!?"

He was about to send her flying across the room with a magic spell out of pure seething hatred _"This girl presumes that I haven't fought enough! That I haven't lost EVERYTHING to my cause to my faith and my duty! I should eradicate you for having the gall to-"_ When it hit him like Samuel had done when he had first begun training him. She was right, when he came here, he just kind of gave up, literally hours before he had felt a living sentient being just die, and he felt little to nothing. It was something he hated more than anything, it was the fact that some fairly insignificant being was right and he was objectively wrong. He spent his whole life fighting for as long as he could even against unbeatable odds. He had used the excuse that this place wasn't his world as an excuse to not act when he could or should.

Then for the first time in what felt like centuries he laughed, a whole hearted laugh and he could see it. He was afraid, afraid of connecting to others, afraid of the consequences of his actions, but he did not gain the respect of several powerful Void Lords and many gods by playing by the rules, so he decided to give this plane of reality an opportunity to show him that it was worth it. This world would have to convince him it was worth it to possibly incurring the anger of beings beyond even him, or playing with the forces and powers of this reality that he knew little of other than what he had read in books. So, he laid out his argument trying to keep himself in character so to speak. _"I will need to speak to Interloper about my 'past' in this reality."_

Then something even worse hit him_ "I'm going to have to be like Interloper… dear god, I feel sick already."_ So again, he played along with the shrouded past vibe mildly plagiarizing a line from one of his favorite movies from when he was growing up just to give him that extra edge. "So, I hope that concludes our talks, give me a date and time and give me materials to read up on perhaps and I will have both read them and be there. Also, if you could get me that file you probably have, I would love to see what they wrote about me." He gave them both a nice big smile and he rose from his chair and walked towards the door and opened it gesturing for them to leave.

As they left Ozpin turned around on the porch before leaving. "Initiation is the day after tomorrow at 10 A.M. feel free to arrive early, from looking at your home I'm assuming you are not one for fancy."

David shook his head "No, as long as it is built for the purpose of being an educator then feel free to put me anywhere and design it however you want." Ozpin then nodded and walked away towards where he could see a bullhead at the edge of the clearing in front of his house. David shut the door and immediately tried to mentally call Interloper, to which he unfortunately didn't answer or show up. "The one time he listens to me and it's the time where I'm the one who calls him." David sighed, well looks like he was going to have to roll with the punches for now until he could get a hold of him, luckily slowing down time and spending ages in a library reading up an everything about Remnant helped him slightly in the fact he wouldn't be bumbling around completely trying to figure out how everything worked. He looked at a clock on the wall. "Huh there is still several hours before I should head to bed, I guess I can just start packing, and so he did.

He packed most of his clothing and several other miscellaneous items, such as several of his amulets, a collection of books and tomes, and of course his weapons, first was his sword cane/staff hybrid and Durendal, the cane was a simple affair as was the blade. The blade of the sword though had been hardened by a master atomic magician, second was his pistol, if he recalled the model was a 10mm Glock 40, it was old even when he first got his hands on it, but it had served him well throughout his life, again atomic magicians had modified it to be able to 'fire' raw magic out of the barrel, usually manifesting a blue bolt of some kind, almost like casting a magic missile straight out of Dungeons and Dragons, to help facilitate his more defensive fighting style, and it was charged by a modified magazine. When everything was packed, he sat down on his couch and began to think. "What was with his cane? It was radiating magic of some kind but I couldn't tell what. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with Ozpins past lives as Interloper told me but what exactly, he only ever gave me basic surface information." David shook his head "Doesn't matter, none of my business anyway." He then quickly went to bed.

As he felt sleep take him his eyes suddenly opened and he was in the remains of a massive city skeletons of skyscrapers and bombed out buildings in every direction. "Ah, you have finally come." David whipped around to find a disembodied being standing before him. "He Who Swallowed Burning Coals, The Destroyer, The Interlopers little pet project, even as you died, he couldn't help but play with you could he?" Its voice was quiet, almost a whisper.

"You're not real" David could feel the overwhelming presence of this thing before him, and it scared him, very few things could stack up to some of the things he had to both interact with and fight. "This is just my guilt talking."

The being laughed "Guess, you will have to find out the hard way that your wrong. Just like you always are when it really counts, just as it was for everyone you knew, after all it is your fault, they all died, because you couldn't do what had to be done." The being came into focus, it was him, in all his glory, he had bloodstains all over his coat and had a sickeningly sweet smile. "Come on now, don't look at me like that, you always could have won easily, but you never did, sighting your silly morals as-"

"Shut up! You're not real!" David screamed at his copy.

"Keep telling yourself that, but just know all I'm waiting for is for you slip up, and when you do, I'll be there." He jerked up suddenly from his bed now awake. He was hyperventilating sweat covered his body, he slowly regained control over his breathing, shaking his head and dismissing the dream, he had lots of nightmares all the time, this one was no different than any other. Then he glanced over at his clock, it was 10:00 A.M., he had wanted to arrive early so he could talk to Ozpin about the curriculum and just simply allowing him to unpack everything he had. When he cleaned up, he grabbed his two suitcases filled with his things and walked out of his house after checking for anything he missed. He activated his magical defenses locked the door and walked towards vale. Other than a few grimm who he took care of the trip wasn't too hard. He entered Vale and was greeted by far more people than before. "Must have to do with the whole Initiation." He thought, He had been to plenty of collage towns as he was growing up and knew were often like this when students weren't around the place felt empty, but when the students came back suddenly everything was twice as packed.

As he was walking down a street towards the academy, he realized he had no idea of how to get to the bullhead port. He sighed to himself "Even after 2,000 years, and you still have a bad habit of not asking for the nitty gritty details." He said quietly to himself. He shrugged his shoulders and began mindlessly walking in the general direction of the academy, as he was walking he took in the sights and began memorizing the layout to make his life a bit easier, mentally filing away street names landmarks and anything else that could help him figure out where he was going. As he was doing this, he wasn't paying too much attention to his surroundings and before he knew it, he ran right into a sign post and feel flat on his back. "Ouch, I swear my one-track mind is gonna be the death of me one day." He rubbed his forehead which had begun to form a rather nasty goose egg.

He was about to get up when a hand reached out in front of him. "Need some help mister?" The voice was somewhat high pitched and reminded him of some innocent child. He looked up to see the girl from last night red and black dress the rather large weapon everything was the same. David was panicking internally, but he tried to not let it show.

"Oh, uh hello, thank you." He took the hand and quickly got up. "Sorry, you had to see that, I try to pay better attention most days, but I was a bit distracted." He was about to grab his things and walk away when it hit him. "I know this sounds a bit strange but, you wouldn't happen to know how to get to the bullhead port to get to Beacon Academy would you?"

"Oh, do you have a student there who forgot some stuff?" The girl said her smile borderline blinding.

"No, actually I'm going to be a new professor there, but I'm not too familiar with the area, think you can help me find my way?" David said with a smile, or at least one as close to one as he could manage.

The girl clearly didn't notice. "What!? Really?! That so cool, I'm headed there now, what's your name? Where did you train? What's your semblance? What-"

David held up a hand cutting her off, his head spinning from the assault of questions. "I'd be more than happy to talk about myself in more detail, but for now why don't you show me the way."

"Oh yeah, totally professor, follow me." She gave a salute after which she disappeared in a flash of rose petals, he saw a red streak disappear down a street and abruptly turn a corner.

"Quite the eccentric one, isn't she?" David scoffed at his own comment. "It's not like I have any room to talk though." And began walking down an empty alleyway to his right

**Ruby P.O.V**

Ruby skidded to a stop at the bullhead port, and saw on a sign that the flight to Beacon was in about twenty minutes. Then she realized "I used my semblance to get here, he probably got left behind, oh stupid ruby always not thinking." She turned to head back the way she came to see the professor standing right behind her.

"Quite the energetic one, aren't you? Let me guess your semblance is some kind of speed enhancement?" She yelped as she jumped and fell over.

"Whoa, how did you keep up?" She said in genuine surprise. "I guess huntsmen got all sorts of tricks huh?"

He nodded "Correct, I wouldn't be here if I didn't know how to deal with really fast opponents. So, how long until we head to Beacon?" With his suitcases sitting behind him he held himself stiffly with one hand behind his back and one hand hooked onto his belt. Ruby stood back up, now she got a much better look at him his clothes seemed somewhat strange for the weather a long grey trench coat, his hat was a wide brimmed grey fedora and strange gold necklace of some kind with a crystal hanging from it, he remined him a lot of a mix between Torchwick and Ozpin to be honest, he seemed well educated like he knew more than everyone around him from the way he held himself, when he removed his hat briefly to greet a passerby he had what looked to be black hair with a splash of grey going through it, it reminded her a lot of her uncle Qrow except a bit taller. His eyes were what really surprised her though, his eyes were a piercing blue color and they seemed to shine in the light.

"Something on my face girl?" He said, now those eyes were directed at her. She attempted to get words out but all that came out was random noises as her mouth attempting to articulate words. He chuckled loudly "Don't worry girl, my weapons and skills are reserved for the foolish and evil, and I think you are neither."

The bullhead came in for landing and as it landed both him and Ruby got on along with many other students. Ruby lost track of him in the throng of people getting on the bullhead, and in her stupor as she processed his words, she took a random seat. When she had finally recovered some came from out o9f nowhere and put into a strangle hold of a hug. "Ruby! I can't believe your coming to beacon with me this is gonna be the best year ever!"

**David P.O.V**

_"Thank god I was able to ditch that girl."_ David took a deep breath. As he sat on a bench next to a window he couldn't help but admire the view as they came in a for a landing, when a hologram of Glynda Goodwitch giving some kind of introduction speech appeared she mentioned it being a time of peace which made David nearly scoff out loud, so he simply tuned her out as he gazed out the window. _"These people really are fascinating, pretending everything is okay when that couldn't be further from the truth."_

As he was looking, he heard the distinct sound of someone's stomach having a rough time. He quickly turned his head away to see a poor blonde-haired young boy stumbling around clearly just trying to hold in his lunch. He quickly gathered his things and got out of the line of fire so to speak. "I am not going to be thrown up on, on my first day here no less." He found a bench and sat down, unfortunately, him moving places did nothing as the boy came blindly barreling towards him. So, he did the next best thing, he summoned several chains and casually threw the boy into a nearby seat. As he did so though the boy found himself unable to withstand the sudden movement and threw up directly onto the floor and over the shoes of a young rather shapely girl with long blonde hair who was standing next to the girl from earlier. He sighed as he simply pulled down his hat for a quick nap.

A sudden jolt woke him up and he placed his hat back on top of his head, to see students leaving and most likely exiting the bullhead. He took a deep breath, "Remember David you're doing this because you are bored not because you actually intend to help these people, at for anyway, just keep up appearances and you'll do fine." Another voice popped up _"Yeah keep telling yourself that." _ He shook his head ignoring the voice, he then exited the bullhead to see the courtyard of the Academy, he had to admit the structure itself was rather impressive it reminded him of a mix between victorian and medieval architecture. As he stepped off the bullhead and began his trek towards the courtyard itself as he walked, he noticed the red hired girl from earlier getting berated by some other girl with white hair and white everything really white clothes, even had very lightly colored eyes. As he got closer, he began to hear more and more of the girl, which progressively became more and more annoying.


	7. Chapter 6: A Pile of Secrets

Ruby POV

"Are you even listening to me?! Is any of this sinking-!" Before she could finish her sentence the glass bottle of dust she was holding was snatched out of her hands by some blue icy chain and softly set on the ground beside her and Ruby who had been about to sneeze found a handkerchief thrust into her hands which she quickly used to cover her face and sneeze into. When she looked up, she saw the professor from the docks. His face was marred by a deep scowl and a look of annoyance. He then quietly collected the cases stacked them back on the cart she had fallen into and collected the loose bottles and replaced them, and handed the case they were in back to the girl. "You shouldn't be handling my things without permission, don't you know who I am, I am Wiess Schnee heiress of theeee-" She was unable to finish her sentence as he towered over her by at least a foot and a half while glaring at her.

His face was now back to his neutral face from at the docks, but his eyes seemed to have a slight edge to them, but without saying a word he simply walked away towards the Academy pulling his suitcases behind him. Both of the girls stood in silence, when another voice broke the silence. "Well, that was an interesting first impression."

Weiss whipped around, and saw a girl with black hair and a large black bow on her head with a book in one hand. "What do you mean by that?"

The girl shook her head and sighed "That guy was a new professor, a combat instructor to be exact."

Roses eyes went wide, "Oh my gosh, I didn't even ask for his name do you think he'll hold that against me?"

The girl in black shrugged her shoulders, "How am I supposed to know?" She walked away without another word as did Wiess leaving Ruby alone.

Blake POV

As Blake walked away, she was thinking about the new professor. _"Who is he, I remember someone in the white fang saying they had met some Atlas hunter years ago and how she had seen his chains tear a Deathstalker apart."_ She thought, this man fit that description, but there was something off, it was his face mostly the thin smile placed on was clearly a front of some kind, something to get most people to ask as few questions as possible not the face of a proud Atlas hunter, but what really confused her was when he had initially approached the Schnee he seemed to reach for something but then hesitated. _"Was he reaching for a weapon, or something else? He didn't seem armed."_ As he walked the hallways towards the ballroom, she saw him speaking to Glynda Goodwitch in the hall, she quietly leaned against the wall and listened in.

"You don't have to agree with me being here or my methods Miss. Goodwitch, but what you do have to do is help me in some manner, I have never taught children before, therefore anything that you could give me in that regard would be useful, unless of course you would prefer for me to treat them as I have the few people I have trained?" Blake glanced around the corner to see him standing there but this time he was armed, what seemed to be a simple sword in a sheath at his hip, of which he was resting his left hand on casually.

"Mr. Warden, Ozpin may have allowed you to teach at this academy, but I will not tolerate such callus treatment of our students no matter who is in the wrong." Glynda crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

"_She must be referring to the scene with Wiess Schnee._" Blake thought.

"Oh? And I suppose I should sit and watch while I see stupidity and the mistreatment of others based on what, money, status, strength? If that is what you want, we might as well go back in time to when Remnant had kings where your name and blood were more important than your ability. These children are huntsmen they are the shield of humanity as many, love to say, but all a shield needs to fail is a single crack in its design and one good strike then," He snapped his fingers in her face. "It will shatter, and it won't matter how many huntsmen there are, we'll lose." She could tell from the way he was talking he was speaking in a way only those experienced could know.

He was about to say more when he paused and glanced around and then he eyes landed right where Blake was, and she quickly dipped behind the corner. "We can continue this conversation elsewhere Miss. Goodwitch. For now, I think we should prepare for initiation, shouldn't we? We can sort out our differences later, over coffee or something perhaps?" Blake could hear what he could only assume were his steps getting closer.

"Very well, Mr. Warden but we are not done here." She heard Glynda say, then she heard his steps stop.

"Of course, I would expect nothing less from someone as dedicated and passionate about these children as you." His steps began again and became closer, she quickly ran down the hall, but as she was about to turn a corner, a glowing icy chain flew past her and blocked her path she turned to see him walking towards her, his hand now gripping his sword.

"Now, I would normally say that eavesdropping is a rather bad habit to have, but since it wasn't too important of a conversation, we can just call it case of curiosity killed the cat, or at least got the cat caught."

She froze up, _"Does he know? That's not possible he's never met me and I never met him, and my bow perfectly covers up my ears."_ Then that same fake thin smile appeared on his face.

"Look, I care very little about what happened, it was a simple disagreement between peers. We can talk a little while I escort you back to the ballroom for curfew, you need rest if you are to do well in the initiation." She nodded without saying a word as he began to walk next to her. They walked quietly for some time before he looked and saw the book in her arms. "You like to read?"

She nodded "Yes I do." She said curtly. The low sound of a chuckle tickled her ears.

"Aren't one for conversation are you, although to be fair it's not like I made a stellar impression myself." As they walked, he held out his left hand. "Let's start again, I am David Warden, I'm going to be in charge of an alternative Combat Class, I hope to see you in my class." This time his smile was more genuine, it almost made her feel physically warm.

She took the offered hand with her right and shook it. "Blake Belladonna, it's a pleasure." She released his hand and they continued to walk down the hallways towards the ballroom.

When they arrived at the doors, David gave a small bow. "I shall be watching you closely during initiation I hope to see great things from you." He promptly walked back the way they had come.

P.O.V Interloper

"Look miss, I didn't come here to argue with an insect, if I really wanted to and had the permission I could simply write you out of reality or send you to a hellscape of a world and be done with it, but that isn't what this is." He pulled out a toothpick from his suit pocket and stuck it in his mouth. In front of him was a woman who was fairly tall and had almost sheet white skin with black veins around her face.

"You presume to be able to intimidate me?" The woman said indignation and anger in her voice.

Interloper sighed and snapped his fingers and then suddenly everyone in the room froze as they were standing up. "Missy I can control time, space and reality itself, I'm not presuming, I _CAN_. His voice seemed to reverberate off the walls and looking closely she could see the air around him seemingly warp and change. "Again, I'm not here for any of that I'm mainly here to give you a small warning, one of my agents is here on a… forced retirement plan shall we say." He snapped his fingers and a chair appeared that he sat in. "And let me tell you, messing with him, toying with him, thinking you have him all figured out will be the biggest and last mistake of your life. He is old tired and has been fighting Gods, would be Gods, Demi-Gods, Demons and everything else in between the entire time. I know you felt him enter your reality with your rather fascinating connection to the land, and I also know that you have people looking for him. To be honest he makes the Brother Gods from this place look like an absolute joke, at least in terms of destructive output." He lounged further back into the chair looking her directly into her eyes. "Salem, I'm telling you this out of courtesy, you can destroy the world for all he cares, but if you touch ONE thing of his then you might as well hang yourself right then and there for all the good it will do you. Trust me, at first glance he is kind, maybe a bit cold but otherwise he fairly kind, but inside every good man is a monster, a monster he technically beat once." He stood up from the chair which disappeared as he rose and snapped his fingers again everyone then began running at him to which they froze just as they were pulling out weapons. "Ah, ah, ah, play nice." He snapped his fingers again and they flew into their chairs unable to move. He adjusted his suit and tie and removed the toothpick from his mouth. "Salem, just think about my offer, if you ever want to come to an arrangement then call me at this number." He pulled what looked to be a business card from his suit pocket, it was all black with a simple scroll number on it in gold lettering. She carefully took it from him, "See, now that wasn't too hard, just remember what I told you, leave the man alone or this entire world including you will pay the price." He then walked behind one of the many thin pillars in the long room and then he was gone as if he was never there.

David P.O.V

When he finally entered his quarters that had been shown to him by Glynda when he first entered, he was pleased with the simple décor, there was a desk in front of a window a bed, a closet and that was about it. When he had escorted that girl back to the ballroom after his altercation with Glynda about the Schnee girl from earlier. He had to admit she did have somewhat of a point if he used only the stick then most students would come to dislike him, if not outright hate him, which would cause to many eyes to be looking at him, he wanted to be average if anything. He sighed and sat down on his bed. "I wonder what this initiation will entail?" He shrugged "Guess I'll find out tomorrow." As he sat down on his bed he heard a knock at his door. Sighing he stood back up and opened it to find Ozpin standing there. "Do you need something Ozpin?"

"Yes, I did, I was curious about you." Ozpin walked past David and sat on nearby chair at his dinner table. "You must understand I strive to know as much as I can about my students and faculty alike, but you Mr. Warden are almost an unknown to me, which is surprising."

David thought carefully about how to deal with this, this guy was a spiritually immortal being that moved from host to host and has been alive possibly longer than he has which was rather impressive, he probably has sources everywhere to try and figure him out he thought. While taking a seat across from Ozpin, he took a deep breath. "Do you wish to know the truth?"

"Yes, I do." Ozpin leaned towards David in anticipation.

"Well to bad." David answered, "I have my secrets as I am sure you have yours, and either of us prying into the others past would be rather bad for relations don't you think?" David gave Ozpin a smile and leaned back in his chair. "I understand your desire to know but I am sorry to say that my past is just that, my past, not to be thought on or looked into too deeply." David rose up from his chair and walked back to the door. "So, if you wouldn't mind, I need to prepare for my classes and I would like to get sleep before the initiation tomorrow." He then opened the door.

Ozpin cocked his head and nodded, but just before he exited the room and turned to David. "I would rather not have to find out the hard way Mr. Warden."

David froze anger welling up inside him. "_He dares threaten me! I could tear you apart right now and make a magical copy with your corpse and no one would ever notice your absence you INSCET!" _David shook his head and decided a more subtle approach would probably be more effective. "Neither would I, but just so we are clear." He leaned in a few inches from Ozpins face. "I wonder what's so important about your cane besides it being your weapon, you always hold it rather tightly when anyone else gets in close." Ozpin viably froze for just a moment before returning to his normal relaxed state. "Ozpin this is a fight you don't want to pick leave me be and I'll leave you be." He then shut the door in his face. After removing his clothes and slipping into some pajamas he fell into the bed and promptly went to sleep.

"David, why did you leave me? You could have saved me." It was her voice again, the one that always showed up every few days. "You just gave up and watched me die."

"No, that's a lie, I tried everything I could, hell I even broke the rules to try and bring you back! This isn't real!" All he could do was cover his face refusing to look at the figure that stood in front of him, until they were wrenched from his eyes and all he could see was her bloody broken corpse standing there. All he could do was scream.

"No!" He woke up yelling, his entire body was covered in sweat and he was hyperventilating. He removed the covers and sat up on the edge of the bed, and he cried.

Ruby P.O.V

"I was about to sneeze then he gave me a handkerchief picked all the stuff up in flash and made that crabby girl clam up by just looking at her, it was so cool, but really scary at the same time. I heard he's gonna be a combat instructor, I can't wait to see what kind of things he can show us." Ruby finished writing in her journal as she talked with Yang.

"Sounds like someone is a bit of a fan." Yang said with big grin on her face.

"Well of course I am, his semblance is summoning these awesome chains, he even looked cool with his trench coat he looked like he was straight out of a detective novel he was just missing a pipe and that funny hat." Ruby looked up to see the black-haired girl from earlier sitting in a corner. "She knows more I'm gonna go ask her."

The girl was sitting calmly reading a book when Ruby ran up to her. "Hey do you know more about the professor, cause like I really want to sign up with his class after initiation. Also, what's your name?"

She looked up at Ruby and sighed "My name is Blake, and not much more than his name and a bit of basic information, his name is David Warden apparently and I think he is former Atlas military."

"So, he's a grizzled veteran of fighting grimm? Awesome." Yang stated.

"By the way I'm Ruby and this is Yang." Ruby said cheerfully.

"A pleasure now I'm going to get back to my book that I was reading by myself."

Ruby pulled the put book down and gave Blake her best puppy dog eyes. "Pleeeeeeease? You gotta know more than that I mean, how old do you think he is, how long has he been a huntsman?"

Blake promptly lifted the book back up and ignored her, "Uh, sis I think she's a lost cause, let's just try and get some-"

She was promptly cut off by scoff "Hello, some other people are trying to sleep here!"

"Ok, geez were going." Said yang as her and Ruby slipped back into their sleeping bags.

"Good luck tomorrow little sis." Yang said with a smile

"You to Yang." Ruby returned the smile. They both quietly went to sleep, and soundly slept.

Glynda P.O.V

The initiation was in a few hours and Mr. Warden hadn't shown up to the staff meeting beforehand. So, she was walking to his office/apartment to give him a stern talking to, except when she opened the door to his room, she didn't see him still in bed as she thought, he was sleeping at his desk, still in his nightwear. She walked over to wake him up she saw a pile a of papers on his desk stacked neatly to his right, she looked closer and found them to be the profiles off all of the current students and those participating in initiation, looking up she saw his desk scroll was open and displayed what looked to be a hand written synopsis of the student that was on top, it happened to be one named Velvet Scarlatina.

_A support type if I've ever seen one, her semblance would allow her to support her teammates with information perfectly and without errors, an advantage in the heat of the moment, with her weapon it allows her some form of offensive and defensive fixability but she should be primarily relegated to information gathering, have her read as much as possible, little scraps of information could be critical in any confrontation especially against more rare or dangerous types of Grimm or even people. (Perhaps have her read up on human, faunus, and Grimm biology?)_

She began to quietly scroll through his work and had to admit to herself she didn't think he would be this dedicated, it was almost like he was assessing each of them for their particular strengths and assigning them a position of offensive, defensive, support, and control, but the way he described their abilities was almost clinical in a way like he was a system not fit for this kind of work. That's when she saw it, faint trail of what could have only been tears on his sleeping face, then she came across Ruby Rose's synopsis.

_A primarily offensive type, with her weapon and semblance combo she could easily be a force to be reckoned with in the field, but her biggest weakness is, overestimating her own and others abilities, no one is invincible, and her strange choice to go with a sniper rifle rather than something a bit more complimentary to her fighting style like a shotgun or light machine gun of some kind, but this does give her a bit more flexibility in the support department so i'll ignore it. Her young age is, all things considered an advantage, it will allow her to be more open to ideas and training/teaching when the time comes, her biggest strength is her potential for leadership, from meeting her properly the first time she had a charisma drawing in people around her whether they knew it or not._

"You know if you wanted to see my work, you could have simply asked." She repressed the urge to almost squeal in surprise, she had gotten so engrossed in reading his assessments that she didn't notice him waking up. She turned to see him with his head still laying on his desk with small grin on his face. He rose back up and stretched she could hear a few cracks as he stretched his back. "Did I miss the meeting?" She saw his eyes were red and he had dark bags under his eyes, but she decided against pointing them out or asking about it.

Glynda kept calm "Yes you did, and it was important to, it was a rundown of the initiation happening in about three hours, so get ready, and head out to the cliff on the west side of the Academy I'll send you the information to your Scroll so you can catch up on your way there." David nodded as he began to collect his things and grabbed a towel to head into the shower.


	8. Chapter 7: So it Begins

**Hey guys next chapter here for ya, hope you like it, we got some good stuff waiting for us the future. I've been on a large writing binge, so just so you guys know ive been developing like five or six other fanfictions stories don't worry this will still take priority but if the chapters start to take awhile before i post then that is probably why.**

David P.O.V

He had been unable to return to bed after waking up at almost three in the morning due to his nightmare. After briefly crying he quickly collected himself and sat down at his desk, printed off the files on every active student and initiation participant and began making assessments of all of them after about an hour he got into a rhythm and before he knew it, he fell asleep at his desk. He was woken up by someone getting far to close when he opened his eyes to see Glynda almost uncomfortably close to him trying to read his little synopses on the students.

After a brief exchange in which she left him he quickly showered and got into some clothes maintain his theme of trench coats he went with his black trench coat with red dress shirt and a black tie and vest. As he looked over himself in the mirror, he couldn't help be see himself twenty years younger with wide eyes as he saw his mentor Samuel first using magic, he thought it was the coolest thing he had ever seen. "_But alas, with age came wisdom and cynicism."_

He shrugged his shoulders grabbed his sword and gun attached them to his person and left the room and locked the door. His scroll beeped and he opened it to see the quick rundown of what the initiation was all about. After going through it he was rather surprised, the test itself seemed incredibly dangerous, not that he minded he just wasn't expecting it. After being thrown from a cliff using launch pads of some kind, they had to create a 'landing strategy' after landing the first person they saw would become their partner. They then had to make their way through a forest and find a set of ruins to retrieve a set of 'artifacts' after which they would head back to the sheer cliff they were launched from and it would be over. On top of all this it was right in the middle of a Grimm infested forest from the looks of things. "_Huh, interesting tactics, but who am I to judge?"_

He followed the directions on his scroll until he arrived at a cliff Ozpin and Glynda were both there. As he looked around the area, he saw many metal squares in the ground, thinking better of it he stepped over one of them and stood next to Glynda. He looked at the view of the forest and he had to admit he hadn't quite seen anything quite like it in a very long time. He couldn't help but give a small smirk. "Something amusing Mr. Warden?"

"No, not really just think the view from up here is pretty nice. So where are the students?" He said coming to stand next to Glynda.

"They were already launched into the forest, here." She handed him a pad and when he turned it on it had several cameras following the students around. "_Probably to make sure no one actually dies in the initiation._" He began cycling through the cameras after a few moments he landed on the girl in red and black from yesterday. Ruby Rose as he discovered her name was last night, looking at it she was having some kind of an argument with the stuck up Schnee girl. He began cycling again and landed on the girl Pyrrha Nikos if he recalled correctly, a phenomenal fighter, but from his experience training and fighting in an enclosed relatively safe setting only went so far compared to real world experience, in the regard Ruby had the edge, but when you're as talented as she seemed to be then one can often overcome those faults.

She was with what he could only describe as the most average person he had ever seen. His name was Jaune Arc from his files he was a fairly capable person wouldn't say he was amazing by any standards. This boy though was not coming off as even semi competent, he was holding his sword far too tightly, he was using his shield more like a giant counter weight rather than a defensive armament, and the strangest thing of all, his wounds weren't healing. From his research people who had their aura unlocked often had an accelerated healing it was by no means a fix it all, but it quickly healed cuts and bones that would have normally taken over a month to set properly only took a week. "_This kid didn't even have his aura unlocked!" _He quickly tapped Ozpin's shoulder "Headmaster, we have a problem." He said still watching the camera closely.

"Yes Mr. Warden?" Ozpin glanced behind him and over the rim of his glasses.

"This man, Jaune Arc doesn't even have his Aura unlocked, I believe he faked his files and transcripts." David looked into Ozpin's eyes and saw no reaction in them. "You knew?" Ozpin simply nodded affirming his question. Then David felt anger "You sent a seventeen-year-old boy who can barely hold a sword without an aura into a grimm infested forest! Why in the nine hells did you think that was a good idea!"

"Because he has potential." Ozpin simply said.

"Potential! It won't matter how much he has if he is fucking dead! In fact, if he is with Ms. Nikos, he might end getting them both killed! Because she has to make sure he doesn't die  
!" He glanced back down at the camera and saw that his wounds were now healed he was smiling and looking at his body.

"It seems Ms. Nikos took up the challenge and unlocked his aura for him." Ozpin showed no sign of any kind of emotion and simply turned back to watch the forest.

David was still seething "_This idiot thought that was a good idea?! First lesson of war, don't ever take unnecessary risks, what game is he playing that children have to take these risks for him, if I was in charge-!_" Then he took a deep breath, it was getting harder to reign in his impulses, he needed to stop caring so much about lives that don't affect him. If the boy died then that was his fault for lying to get into some school he was never actually equipped to handle. He quietly nodded and left the two to go and sit under a tree to watch the initiation further. He settled on watching Ruby further as she was most likely going to be the most interesting. She did not disappoint she was eccentric for sure, but when push came to shove, she fulfilled his initial thoughts about her, she was indeed a capable leader, her personality said it all when he first met her. She had the charisma, the energy, and the determination, she wouldn't give up if she failed, which was more than he could say for many.

As he watched he wondered how she was going to beat the Nevermore, then he saw her doing something he could only call completely crazy. She was using a combination of the elastic nature of Blake's weapon and the Schnee girl's gravity dust to propel herself and using her rifle to continue that momentum. Hooking it by the neck with her scythe blade, once again the Schnee girl using gravity dust allowed her to run up the cliff firing her rifle behind her to gain more and more speed. Then as she got close to the edge of the cliff, she fired one last time taking the Nevermore's head clean off. She landed on the cliff right in front of the camera, and David couldn't help but be impressed, improvisation was hard to do, especially in a high stress combat scenario.

After checking over everyone to make sure there weren't any serious injuries, they were quickly escorted back to the ballroom. David stood next to Glynda as Ozpin made a quick speech and began calling up students in groups of four and giving them a team name and announcing the team leader. "Jaune Arc, Lie Rin, Pyrrha Nikos, and Nora Valkyrie, the four of you retrieved the white rook pieces from this day forward you will be known as team JNPR. Lead by Jaune Arc."

He couldn't help but look a bit shocked. "_That kid who just got his aura unlocked literally an hour ago is going to lead a team? What is this guy thinking?" _He just slightly shook his head sighed and kept standing in the line of professors waiting patiently for the ceremony to be over. As the groups were called up one by one, he couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of many of them, he hadn't had the luxury of fighting beside friends for a very long time.

"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long, you four retrieved the four of you retrieved the white knight pieces." He watched curiously wondering who was going to be put in charge of the group. "From this day forward, you will be known as Team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose."

He couldn't help but have a small smirk. "_I knew it._" After several other teams were announced they were beginning to wrap up the ceremony when Ozpin just as he was about to finish at the podium turned and looked at me. "_Don't you fucking dare._"

"Now, before we finish, I would ask for a few words from our newest member of the faculty David Warden." He gestured to him and backed away from the podium.

"_I'm going to get you back for this._" He tried to convey that message with his eyes, and face, but either Ozpin didn't notice or he didn't care. He internally sighed as he quietly stepped up the podium and was in silence for a long while trying desperately to say something at least interesting. "Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in, machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost." Stealing directly from one his favorite speeches he tried his best to sound inspiring, but he couldn't help but feel a little emotional whenever he heard its words. "Huntsmen!" He shouted and he saw several jumped at the sudden exclamation. "When you graduate from this academy, remember your purpose, you are the defenders of humanity, and thinking you are anything else or less is unacceptable."

Ruby P.O.V

"Whoa." Was the only sound she could articulate after hearing him speak. When he spoke, it was like his voice reverberated across the entire ballroom, and not like the mic was working really well, it felt different, she looked to her left to see her sister also with her mouth agape.

Her sister whispered so only Ruby could hear "Damn, he's got a way with words, I mean he is a bit old but he's pretty good looking."

Ruby's head snapped to look at her sister. "Eww! Gross! Seriously he's like fifty years old, he's got grey hair and everything. I will disown you as my sister if you even try anything. We're gonna totally sign up for his class and I don't want you ruining my image."

"Oh yeah little sis?" Yang had a massive smile on her face.

"Yeah I-" Ruby jumped when Ozpin came back up to the podium and began talking suddenly. Turning back to the front she looked at the teachers all lined up and spotted Mr. Warden. Looking closely, she saw the dark bags under his eyes, she could tell he hadn't slept well. She also saw that he was wearing a gold medallion and it had some sort of star design inlaid in its center, it reminded her a lot of Weiss's glyphs. Then she saw it briefly light up with a light blue light, she blinked and rubbed her eyes and watched again to make sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. Then she saw him grab the medallion in his right hand, and his head snapped up and his face was painted with a deep scowl.

Ruby shook her head again and as she was about to think about it more, but the ballroom was dismissed and they were sent to their dorms. When they all arrived at their dorm, even her and yang both advocated for the improvised use of bunkbeds, but she couldn't shake the image of Mr. Warden looking so angry at seemingly nothing, but she pushed it to the back of her mind and went to sleep.

David P.O.V

After quickly closing and locking his office/apartment door, he went to the center of the room grabbed his staff after taking a breath he channeled his magic into the staff and he tapped it on the ground and disappeared in a flash of red light. When he reappeared, he was no longer in the room but in the field surrounding his 'home'. He walked up to his home to see the door open and a charred corpse of what was once some kind of Faunus if the tail was anything to go by. He ran inside and looked around to see the place had been ransacked, he couldn't recall the last time someone managed to make him this furious not just at the brazen intruders but also himself not taking these people more seriously he had underestimated these 'auras' that they possessed it was pretty obvious that it allowed the remaining intruders to survive his electrical trap. He tapped the staff against the wall of his home and suddenly two fussy humanoid figures appeared, his detection magic had a dual purpose to both inform him of intruders and to record the basic movements and form while inside the field.

Watching the movements of one of the fuzzy figures he followed the path of destruction in his house to his private room, as he followed the figure inside he saw what seemed to be one of them grab something from out of a box on his dresser and run clearly trying to leave quickly, the box contained several rings all of which were useless to them, he sighed in mild relief that is until he realized what had been taken, his memory ring was gone, and now he could feel nothing but the deepening anger that welled up inside of him. He ran out of the room and set the recording back to the beginning and followed the second figure, this one seemed to be more confident and was calmly looking through everything as compared to scared scrambling of the other figure. This one even walked out his back door briefly disappearing as it left the vision of the detection spell, it quickly entered back inside and finally the first figure ran up to the second and seemed to be flailing probably trying to convince the second figure to leave, the second figure nodded and both figures left through the front door.

"_They took something that is mine! I will see them all pay as I trap them in a never-ending carousel nightmares inside their own minds! I will make them beg for me to kill them when I am done with them!" _David tried to reign in his anger but to little avail, all he could feel was the seething anger pouring out of him, he needed a release and fast or his magic was going to go berserk and set half the forest on fire. So, doing what he did best he used his magic to find something… anything to take his anger out on and found it in the form of a small group of grimm, using physical enhancing magic he increased his speed to over fifty kilometers an hour. When he ran into the group of over thirty grimm all he could do was yell as he unleashed his anger upon the creatures. When he was done, he didn't remember much except for his yelling and screaming, and the obvious signs of a fight that left most of the general area devoid of most higher forms of life, as well many destroyed trees and the ground looking like a tractor had had a field day.

After taking a deep breath he was able to think more clearly, his magic while an almost ridiculous superpower straight out a of a comic book, it had many drawbacks one of which being sometimes his magic would become supercharged by his emotions and often the magic would simply respond in kind unleashing itself in a raw form often guided by whatever he felt at that time, with extreme sadness it often made it rain and the temperature around him would create sheets of ice, with anger though, it often tried its best to destroy everything in its way whether they were friend or foe. He had nearly killed a close friend the first time he had truly lost control, since that incident he had practiced meditation and several other techniques to avoid it but with a renewed body came one that was technically unused to his levels of magic with age comes power after all. He needed to get back into those meditative practices or he was going to actually do some serious damage to innocent people unintentionally.

He quickly realized he had no idea where to go to find out who had his ring, he could theoretically track it, but only within a short distance. He sighed as he looked up to finally notice it was becoming dark out, he would have to teach his lesson tomorrow. Two parts of his mind competed for dominance one part of him was fascinated and wondered what he could teach these children another part of him told him to leave it be and simply walk away, but he couldn't, he had promised, and he always kept his promises. "Yeah and look how well that turned out for you." Said a voice in his head. He shook his head, "_Now is not the time for that I should head back to the Academy and prepare for tomorrows classes, I'll find my ring after classes."_

His alarm went off and when he pulled off the sheets to check the time, he saw it was five in the morning. He rubbed his eyes, got out of bed, had breakfast, got in the shower and got dressed. He decided to forgo his long coat and decided on black dress pants with a dark blue shirt and a black vest he also left behind a hat even though he usually preferred them. When he was finished, he sat down cross legged on the floor and began to meditate, this technique had been taught to him by an immortal Chinese monk and it had done wonders for his emotional control in the past, after the session, he stood up calmly. He then began casting all kinds of magic on himself, strength increasing magic, elemental resistance, speed increasing magic. He also equipped himself with a silver amulet with a purple gem set in its center, this was a fairly strong force-field that hovered just above his skin, he also equipped himself with his gun and sword, he decided against bringing his staff as it was more a magic tool than a weapon even if it was the weapon he was most skilled with. When he was ready, he glanced at a clock set on the wall and saw the time "8:13 A.M." He said aloud. He then immediately broke out into a sprint and ran in the direction of his classroom that he had been assigned.

Ruby P.O.V

She was frustrated with being late for her first class of the year on top of that it was Prof. Wardens class one of the few she was really excited for she couldn't help but think of all of the things he was going to teach them. When she and her frantic group all made to the classroom and burst through, they were surprised to see everyone in the class except for the professor. They quickly took seats and seconds later there he came walking through the door as though nothing had happened although Ruby could see the sweat on his brow probably from running the whole way here. "Hello I am Mr. Warden; we shall treat today as though everyone arrived on time due to my tardiness. Now why don't we start off with a small talk." He grabbed a chair that was set against the wall behind him and set it down in the middle of the combat circle. "My class is not going to be sunshine and roses, if you don't walk out of here without at least one bruise I will consider that a lack of effort on your part. Now with that being said I will not tolerate any sassy or disrespectful attitudes I am your professor, and the man tasked with making sure when you leave here you have the skills to stay alive, I will not tolerate bullying indirect or otherwise in my class keep your personal grudges outside of my classroom, and trust me, I will be able to tell. I will also be the one who decides when a fight is over not the other way around, if I say stop, you stop if I say keep going you keep going, until I say otherwise. The consequences of violating these rules will be swift and immediate and your team will have four chances before I permanently kick you and your team from my class and you get to go explain to Ms. Goodwitch that you fucked up."

Ruby and everyone in the room was stunned, this guy was about as straightforward as they come. Not to mention he was the first person she had heard openly swear around her beside her Uncle Qrow of course. "Now once again with that being said I do not wish for this class to become dull; I also want to give you all the best chance of making it out there alive. So, I have sent you all a notification on your scroll of times I am available for one on one training sessions with your team, now these are optional and are in no way related to your grade, they are just something I am offering of my own volition, so any questions?"

Ruby's had shot up like a bullet, "Yes Ms. Rose?"

"Can I sign me and my team up for private lessons?" She said giddy with excitement.

"Of course, when class is over, simply send me a message about the time you would like, as I said I sent you a time list, so pick a time that best suits you and your team. Anyone else?"

A Random male student raised his hand. "Where did you train?"

"I was trained in Atlas afterword I joined the military and after about a decade I retired due to personal circumstances."

Another this time a female student raised her hand "Are you single?" This was of course mostly a joking question.

He was silent for thirty seconds or so but to everyone in the room it felt like hours. "I am now, and we shall leave it at that." The atmosphere became about as awkward as it could get, as Ruby saw his face for just a moment, he looked so exhausted and sad, but his face quickly shifted back to the normal one from before.

Nora oblivious to the awkwardness just simply yelled out a question "How many Grimm have you killed!"

"Too many to begin counting. Now if that is all I shall begin class." He replaced the chair and walked back into the center of the combat circle. "This is going to be an evaluation day of sorts I already took the liberty of reading through all of your files and made several notes for myself about your abilities, but a piece of paper can only tell me so much, so I will have each of your teams come up here after which all four of you will fight me after the fight I will give you an evaluation based on performance, teamwork, individual skill, and a few other factors but those are the main three, I will give you a score one to ten in each category one being the worst, ten being the best. We shall begin with Team CRDL."

The four boys walked up into the combat circle after which the screens above the circle updated to display their aura levels, but when Mr. Wardens side updated it only showed his picture and his name, but no aura level was present, when he opened his mouth to say something, most likely to start the match, Ruby quickly raised her hand. "Uh, Mr. Warden your screen doesn't have your aura level displayed."

He turned to look at her and nodded "That was intentional Miss. Rose, in the field if you have the unfortunate luck of having to deal with a hostile Huntsman or Huntress you won't have a screen telling you how you are doing so for all of my classes when I am involved my aura level will not be displayed, not to mention if I feel that my aura is getting low I can always easily stop the fight and move on, points on attentiveness Ms. Rose." Turned back to Team CRDL "Alright now all of you come at me at once." He flicked a hand though his decently long dark brown hair with a streak of bright white going through it.

Cardin seemed to be confused "Uh, look teach I know your much better than all of us but isn't that unfair for you?"

Mr. Warden paused and then began laughing quite loudly "Of all the people here I did not expect you to say that, your file seems to suggest your rather full of yourself and from your combat records you were rather… opportunistic, but I guess that doesn't matter, yes all four of you, give it your best shot, don't hold back at all."

Cardin seemed to just nod and gestured to his teammates they got into a simple formation with Cardin at the front. Mr. Warden drew his sword from its sheath. Ruby couldn't help but stare at the work of art, it was beautiful, crafted to last, she could see glowing orange veins in the blade. "_Probably to utilize dust, instead of combining weapons like everyone else, he made a simple sword that used dust, I wonder what it can do?" _She quickly got the answer when Mr. Warden gave the signal to begin, Immediately Cardin's team rushed him but he didn't move from his spot, but when they were about ten feet from him he lunged clearing the distance almost instantly his blade was even faster with horizontal strike what seemed like snow or ice was launched in the same motion as his sword and crashed into the faces of the entire team he quickly jumped back and returned to a defensive stance. Ruby glanced up at their aura which were largely fine most of them were in the ninety percent range. They quickly recovered, two of them tried to go along the sides to flank him the two both turned their weapons into guns and began shooting at Mr. Warden, as they did this Cardin and another team member kept up the charge. Suddenly red tinted chains appeared and began blocking the rounds coming from the two flankers as Warden meet Cardin's new charge but this time he flipped his grip of the sword and began grabbing the blade, he easily stepped under a swipe from Cardin's mace and came back up quickly hooking the cross guard around Cardin's neck throwing him into the ground hard enough for him to bounce back up briefly, he then brought the sword guard up again and brought it down on Cardin's stomach with a sickening crunch. He then brought it back up to block a strike from the guy who charged with Cardin and then swung the cross guard into his head. She glanced to the chains simultaneously wrapping around the other two and throwing them into the ground.

When Ruby looked back at the screen Cardin's and the others guys aura were both in the red, and Cardin's aura level was at ten percent while the other guys were in the yellow, everyone in the classroom was stunned to silence. "_Just how hard can he hit, three strikes and that was freaking it!? This guy is so cool!"_ As she was thinking this in a matter of a minute the rest of Cardin's team were all in the red, and on the ground.

Mr. Warden nodded seemingly pleased with himself "Hmm, not bad, although your plans were FAR too simple, a lobotomized person could have figured it out, but the tactics were sound, when you have numbers, you can afford to lose one or two so to speak. Overall performance was a 4, Teamwork a 3, and individually you are at a 5 across the board, if you work on your teamwork and your overall skill you will definitely improve for the better. Next will be Team JNPR."

The four rose from their seats and made their way to the combat circle, as they did Ruby saw Mr. Warden stab his sword into the ground and lean on it almost casually, but she saw in his eyes, they were evaluating the four but his eyes seemed focused on Jaune. He seemed to gain a slight frown, and she could see him sigh. "_Why is he doing that?_" she thought.

As Mr. Warden removed his sword from the ground the Aura level of Team JNPR appeared on the screen. "Now remember try your best to hit me, considering your reputation and considering all of your performances during initiation I expect a decent challenge. Whenever you are ready you may begin." He sword was casually off to the side, but she could tell he was ready.


End file.
